Making art in the studio, listening to music or NPR and thinking, all the time thinking. It could be about red versus orange or politics or the world collapsing around us or growing old or (most probably) wondering what to have for dinner.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Studio As Sanctum

I love opening the door of my studio and walking in. I'm greeted first by the smell of wax and then by the wall of windows at the end with that beautiful north light. I am very fortunate in having a beautiful, spacious studio that is relatively cheap, as studio rents go. It's a peaceful, welcoming space that allows me to make my work and retreat from the world. I guess it's my version of a temple, but here I am god - or goddess. Actually, I feel more like a high priestess at the altar of art. Sometimes the priestess has to sweep out the temple because the festivities get a bit rambunctious and the lone worshipper has a habit of dragging out all the relics and paraphernalia until she can't walk around without tripping over things.

Walking into the studio

Recently, due to an important studio visit, I cleaned up and rearranged the sanctum. The walls could have used some patching and painting, but it was pretty neat and my work was easily accessed for viewing. In honor of the occasion, I took some photos, so I thought I'd give you a look

I'm not showing you my storage area because it's so stogged with stuff. That's the part of the studio that you walk into first. So we'll just scurry right through there and move on to the larger part of the space, which is where I actually spend my time working. (Note: click on each picture to enlarge it.)

Left wall

Left wall wider view

Moving down the wall

Older work at end of wall

Swinging around with my back to the windows

Work on top of flat file

More work on flat file

Right wall

"Carry On" and "Gateway" on right wall

Two vertical pieces

From end of right wall looking back toward windows

Pin-ups (including Rachel M.) and storage at end of right wall

Wider view of right wall

Small works on table

A little somethin'-somethin' for visitor refreshments

Of course it no longer looks like this because I'm working now and not entertaining. In a mere couple of weeks I'll have 15 students and faculty in from Smith College for my presentation about encaustic and their experimentation with the medium. I'll have to put all my in-process work away and rearrange everything again, but that's just part of life in the sanctum.

thank you for taking the time to share your wonderful space with us. It is a dream studio and I had a wide smile for the picture of Rachel. I love to see artists' studios. They always tell a story of their own.

Wow nancy, what a SPACE! can i enter to be a part of your GALLERY?!!! hahaha. Your next chore is to unclutter/rearrange your storage area...a label maker will be your best purchase. then you can BREATHE.see you at PTown.p.s. i miss western mass....i went to hampshire college many years ago. sherrie posternak

Thanks for your comments, everyone. You're all invited over for real. I'm glad you got a sense of the room and a better feeling for the work in space because it's so much about the physicality of the materials.

Leslie - the piece with the dominoes (called "Domino-trix") is the inspiration for two larger pieces I'll be making for the Pollination show later this year.

Sherie - anytime you want to come over with yourlabel maker, I'll be glad to put you to work. You would just have to find a place to stick the labels.

What a beautiful studio!! I am definitely jealous!!My studio looks like there has been a tornado in there!! Cleaning up every weekend doesn't do much either......Back to the messy mess once Monday comes:( I will call mine the "inner sanctum of a cave woman" :)

Your studio photos leave me in a sort of galactic transport! Altogether, the windows and art are just an artist's wet dream, (forgive my metaphor)!Best thing I've seen in a whole lot of art blog browsing in many a moon.

As I sit here watching another snow storm invade CT, I am drooling over your studio space. I was up in Easthampton at the holiday open studios and am determined to someday have a "true" studio myself (when can dream, can't one?). Love the vertical works--stunning!

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What am I reading?

I'm always reading something and now it's another one of Robert Caro's volumes of Lyndon Johnson's biography. "Passage of Power" is the fourth volume in this monumental series and covers the years 1958 to 1964. This period of Johnson's life was full of extremes of power - from the peak as Majority Leader of the Senate, then fading as he failed to actively campaign for the presidential nomination in 1960. Once he joined Kennedy on the 1960 Democratic ticket, his southern connections gave Kennedy the win, but Johnson sank into powerless oblivion and became the butt of jokes by "the Harvards." On Kennedy's death, Johnson ascended to the presidency and experienced another series of extremes of political power.

Caro is a master of biography and is always interesting and informative. I recommend this volume (and series) to anyone who follows politics and wants to know some background on how we got where we are today.